Musical instrument



(No Model.)

E. FRBINBR.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

No. 449,439. Patented Mar. 3l, 1891'.

114541415114144@ i' P 1 lllllllllllllllllllll 1 /f/ l mit f B y l I Witnesses Inventor tion of a cheap mechanism for mechanically UNITED STATES EMIL FREINER, OF BUFFALO, ASSIGNO R TO F {ANCISCA FREINER, OF HAM- BURG, NEY YORK.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 449,439, dated March 3l, 1891.

Application filed January 2, 1890.

To all whom it may conce/'1b.'

Be it known that I, EMIL FREINER, of Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements on Mechanical Musical Instruments; and I do hereby declare that the following description of my said invention, taken in connection with the accompanying sheet of drawings, forms a full, clear, and exact specification, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has general reference to improvements in mechanical musical instruments, and especially that class of instruments called metallophones; and it consists, essentially, in the novel and peculiar combination of parts and details of construction, as hereinafter first fully set forth and described, 'and then pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings already mentioned, which serve to illustrate my said invention more fully, Figure l is a plan of my newly-invented metallophone. Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan of a portion of the roller, illustrating the mechanism for shift-i ng the said roller longitudinally. Fig. at is a sectional plan of the crank for operatingthis device.

Like parts are designated by corresponding` letters of reference in all the figures.

The object of this invention is the producoperating the musical instrument known by the name of metallophone, and which consists of a series of metallic plates of different length and thickness properly pitched to the musical scale, and in playing struck with a hammer, usually made of wood. To attain this result I construct my mechanical musical instrument substantially of a base A, having two standards B B', the rst mentioned of which is provided with two laterally-projecting brackets C C', having bearings for a shaft D, carrying a worm E, engaging a suitablyconstructed wheel F, :fixed upon a spindle f, journaled in a bearingf in said standard B, said wheel F being affixed to one end of a roller T, which said roller has on its opposite end a further shaft t, revolving in a bearing Z) in the standard B,so that said roller T may Serial No. 335,572. (No model.)

revolve freely within said bearings and at the same time move longitudinally, as hereinafter to be referred to. lv'ithin the standard B is further journaled a spindle L', (see Fig. 3,) ear- 55 rying on one end a hand-wheel L and a hand or pointer lf, and near the other end a stepwheel K, which said step-wheel has in its rim notches e and projecting from its face an annular rim 7;, the edge of which is prooo vided with a series of step-like offsets It', arranged in relation to the shaft f in such manner that the latter bears with its end upon one or the other ot said steps 7.5', while a spring t on the end of the shaft t presses said shaftf against the face of one of these steps, as clearly shown in Figs. l and 3.

To the side of the standard B is pivoted a lever Il, in about its middle, upon a fulcrum 7L, one arm of said lever carrying a roller J, 7o engaging in the 'notches e in the wheel K, while the other opposite end connects by means of a connecting-rod I with the keyboard M at 1T. This key-board M consists of an L-shaped bar having en both of its ends lugs to receive the pivots nl., passing through the legs of the standards B B', so that said key-board may move around said pivots m.. It has, furthermore, n pwardly-proj ectin g lugs Fig. Q, which receive a long rod a. acting' 5o as a pivot for the keys N, the upwardly-proj ceti n g ledge n. of said key-board being slotted for the passage and guidance of said keys. The keys N are of substantially S shape, the portion projecting forwardly beyond the keyboard having' an incline r, while the rearwardly and upwardly passing portion isbent and turned to form the shank N', which carries on its extremity a preferably wooden ball O by means of a screw o, said ball being' 9o in its normal position somewhat above the metallic plate I). There are in this instrument a suitable number of these keys corresponding to the number of plates I used, and the shanks of all these keys rest upon a support Q, having on its upper edge an elastic strip or cushion q, as illustrated in Figs. l and 2. Each of these keys has also a spiral spring S to pull the said keys downwardly upon the cushion q. The metallic plates l? roo are placed upon a sounding-board R, a cushion fr being placed between the said plates and the sounding-board to permit of an undisturbed vibration of the plates whenever struck by the hammers O, while said plates P are retained in position by pins p in the usual manner. The sounding-board R is supported upon the base A by means of suitable studs R R', as clearly shown in Fig. 9.

Around the periphery of the roller T and in concentric rows are placed pins V, which engage the inclines @of the keys N whenever the said roller is revolved in a suitable direction, thereby depressingr the end of the keys carrying these inclines and lifting the` hammers O, which will drop as soon as the said pins have passed the inclines, they being assisted in this by the spiral springs S. The velocity attained by these hammers in their downward movement overcoming the rigidity of the shanks i causes them to strike the plates P, and thereby to vibrate them, causing them to sound theirrespective notes, so that any musical piece may be played upon this instrument by arranging the pins V in the roller T correspondingly. T is revolved by turning a crank G on the end of the shaft D, which shaft moves said roller by its worm E engaging the wheel F.

' The instrument shown and described is arranged to play eight different pieces, (more or less may be played by a suitable arrangement of the parts,) this being accomplished by the mechanism consisting of the step-like wheel K, against which the end of the spindief revolves. By turning the hand-wheel L, the steps 7c of the wheel K will move the roller T longitudinally step by step to eight dierent positions, there being also a corresponding number of rows of pins V in the periphery of said roller and each representing a musical piece; but since the change from one to the other piece may be made at any point of the roller T between the beginning and the end of a piece, it isnecessary to depress the key-board M, to remove the inclines r of the keys out of the range of the pins V. This is accomplished by the lever I-I and connecting-rod I in such a manner that when the hand-wheel L is revolved the roller .I rises upon the periphery of wheel K and thereby depresses the key-board M in an obvious manner. lThis takes place just before the steps 7c in the face of said wheel K push the spindlef longitudinally, while as soon as the latter has taken place the said roller J will drop into the next succeeding notch e, and thereby return the key-board into its normal position.

Upon the shaft L there isa hand U, and upon the face of the end board X of the instrument there are placed marks or numbers (the pointer is shown to indicate the third piece in Fig. 2) to indicate the respective musical piece to which the instrument is set.

It is obvious that the entire mechanism may be placed into or surrounded by a suitable case, which may be ornamental, as is entomary with instruments of all kinds.

The rollery In instrumentsof the vkind described it is necessary to guard against the roller T' being revolved in the wrong direction, the proper direction of revolution being marked by an arrow in Fig. 2. This is usually accomplished by either a brake on the crank-shaft, a ratchet l and pawl thereon, or by screwing the crank onto the said shaft, so that by turning the crank in the wrong direction this crank will unscrew from said shaft. These devices are either costly or otherwise unsatisfactory, and t0 overcome the objections to which they are open I locate upon the shaft D two collars d and place the crank G between them. T he eye of this crank is open, and a pawl gis pivoted to said crank, so that it may engage one or more notches a in the said spindle D by a L spring g acting upon said pawl. This mechanism is at once extremely simple and very efficient and has the advantage that the crank may be readily removed to prevent meddling with the instrument by lifting the pawl g.

It will be further observed that the wheel K, having in its face the series of successive steps connected by inclines 7c, has from the higheststep in the same to the lowest one a deep step 76', corresponding in height to the aggregate height of all the steps, so that the wheel K, when revolved so that the spindle f is on the highest step, itwill, if the motion of said wheel K is continued, return to the lowest step by said deep step k", this result bein gaccomplished by the springt', already mentioned, acting upon the shaft t, and through it and the roller T upon the shaft f, in an obvious manner.

The star-wheel F is of a width corresponding to the rise of the steps k', so that no matter at what position the roller T may be said star-wheel will be in mesh with thev worm- E.-

Having thus fully described my invention,I claim as new and desire to secure to m'eby Letters Patent of the United States- 1. In mechanical musical instruments, the mechanism .for moving the roller (carrying the pins) longitudinally, consisting of a. spindle carrying a wheel having in its face a series of steps jointed by inclines, in combination with the pin-roller having its spindle bearing against said steps, whereby by revolving said step-wheel the pin-roller is moved longitudinally, as and for the object set forth..

2. In mechanical musical instruments, the combination, with thel mechanism for moving the ,pin-roller longitudinally, of mechanism for depressing the key-board with its keys prior to moving said pin-roller and returning the key-board to its normal position as soon as the longitudinal movement is completed, as set forth.

- 3. In mechanical musical instruments, the combination, with a base having standards, as described, of the shaft D, having the worm E, the pin-roller T, having the shaft f and star-wheel F, the shaft L provided withthe hand-wheel L and the notched wheel K, hav' ing in its face the series of steps 7c', theleve'r IOC IIO

H', having,` the roller .'l, engaging the notches in said Wheel K, the connecting-rod I, and the key-board M, with its keys, the whole bcing constructed and combined to operate in conjunction With suitable metallic plates, as and for the object set forth.

I. In metallophones having a series et metallic bars struck by hammers, as described, mechanism for lifting and dropping said hammers, consisting of a roller having,` on its periphery a series of concentrically-arranged pins engaging` keys, having inclined ends on one end and the shanks Iitted with balls on the other end, means for revolving' said roller, and further means for moving,` the same longitudinally and returning the same as soon as the lateral movement of the roller for chang'- 

